JOBLESS mum blasts cap on benefits — because she can no longer spend £2,500 on Christmas presents for her TEN kids.

Benefit cap means I can’t spend £2.5k on kids this Christmas

Paula Evason, 36, accused PM David Cameron of playing Scrooge by introducing the limit, which reduced her yearly handouts from £48,000 to £36,000.She moaned that the family will have a BUDGET this year — and spend £1,000 on presents.
Paula and unemployed hubby Darren normally buy around 25 gifts for EACH of their kids, including computer games and designer outfits.
The family has THREE Xbox consoles in the home — one of which is connected to a huge flatscreen TV in the lounge which also has a Virgin TV box.
But this year any new clothes will be bought in the January sales. And a broken iPad has been replaced with a £50 tablet from eBay.
She said: “Christmas is an important time for our family.But this year we’re having to cut back. It makes me feel sick.
“David Cameron is a Scrooge. Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill, but it feels like we’re being penalised.”
She added: “How do you explain to children that Father Christmas can’t bring them what they want? It spoils the magic.”
Paula also throws an extra party for daughter Arian, whose birthday falls on Christmas Day — but may cancel it this year because she cannot afford it.
The couple have been married for 16 years and have kids Jordan, 18, Darren, 16, Courtney, 15, Kyle, 13, Skye, 12, Ethan, ten, Letitia, eight, Arian, six, Makenzie, five and Luca, two.
Hubby Darren, 41, was made redundant from his warehouse job eight years ago and is now carer to son Makenzie, who has cerebral palsy.
They live in a five-bedroom house in Walton, Liverpool, and claim child benefit, child tax credit as well as carers’ and disability allowance for their son.
Paula will still spend more on this Christmas than many working families, but she added: “Christmas was always a big occasion. We would spend about £2,500 on presents for the kids.
“This year I can’t afford it. We’re having a budget Christmas, spending about £1,000.”
She added: “People with big families get stigmatised. We get seen as benefit scroungers but we’re not. We appreciate the help we get. I’m not being ungrateful, but it’s just not enough. The benefits cap is making life impossible.”

Bus Loses Roof After Wrong Turn Under Bridge

The driver of the bus takes a wrong turn and loses virtually all of the vehicle's roof after hitting a railway bridge.

A double-decker bus nearly sliced off its roof after crashing into a railway bridge when the driver took a wrong turn.

The accident happened in the Norbiton area of Kingston, in Surrey, as the bus was travelling from Kingston to Tooting Broadway, Transport for London (TfL) said.
No passengers were on board at the time and the bridge was not damaged. Rail services were unaffected.
A TfL spokesman said the accident was due to "human error" and that the driver was "a bit shaken up".

Mike Weston, TfL's director of buses, said: "At around 13:00 an out-of-service route 131 double-decker bus, operated by London United, hit a rail bridge on Coombe Road near Norbiton station after taking a wrong turn.
"The bridge was not damaged and rail services are unaffected. There were no injuries and the incident will be fully investigated."

Geminid Meteor Shower To Light Up Skies

The "most massive" meteor event of the year is set to produce hundreds of shooting stars, according to experts.

The year's most intense meteor shower is set to peak late on Friday night with Nasa predicting between 100-120 meteors per hour.

The annual Geminid shower can be seen from almost any point on Earth and astronomers say the best time to see the action is between midnight and sunrise on December 14.
While most meteor showers come from comets, Geminids is different because the 'parent' is an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
"Of all the debris streams Earth passes through every year, the Geminids' is by far the most massive," said Nasa astronomer Bill Cooke.
The Geminid shower takes its name from the Gemini constellation, from where it is thought to originate.
The shower lasts from December 12-16 but the bright waxing gibbous moon is expected to make viewing tricky at times.
Getting away from the artificial light of towns and cities will give skywatchers a better chance.
A meteor - often referred to as a shooting star - is the streak of light caused when a meteoroid fragment enters the atmosphere and burns up.

 

Teenage girl found hanged at house party ‘had been bullied due to her good looks’

On her Facebook page, Sarah posted the day before the party: “Fuming honest to god might just end it there and then!”

A girl of 14 discovered hanged at a house party was targeted by jealous bullies because of her good looks, friends claim.
Sarah Clerkson was found dying after being put to bed early by friends because she felt sick.
On her Facebook page, Sarah posted the day before the party: “Fuming honest to god might just end it there and then!”
But her grandparents David and Linda Chapman thought she had ‘turned a corner’ in the weeks before the tragedy.
David, 64, said: “She was bubbling, or in her words ‘buzzing’.
“She was emotionally disturbed but we thought she had turned a corner, we thought things were starting to change for her.
“The last month or two she’s been with her new foster parents, everything had been positive.
“However, to begin with there’d been a problem with her introduction into a new school. She was bullied for about a week.”
He thought the issue had been resolved with the school and ‘blown over’.
“We were lucky to have her,” he added. “She brought so much joy into our lives, we’ve had our hearts ripped out.”
Party host John Moore tried to save Sarah by giving heart massage under instruction from a 999 operator.
Police, then paramedics took over, but she could not be revived.
Sarah, who attended a school in Spennymoor, Co Durham, had gone to a party there at about 8.30pm on Saturday, but was put to bed in a back bedroom after being sick.
John, 16, added: “At about 12.15am on Sunday we went to see how she was. We got no reply and we had to kick the door down.”
She was rushed to the University Hospital of North Durham in the early hours of Sunday but later died.
John said there was drink, but no drugs at the party.
Sarah got on well with other guests, but had mentioned relationship issues and was ‘upset about past experiences’.
Devastated grandmother Linda, 63, said: “It was just like a nightmare when they came to tell me she had died. She touched everybody’s heart.
“She was lovely. She had a heart of gold but she had a lot of emotional issues and family problems.”
Sarah, originally from Sunderland, also made reference to personal issues on Facebook.
David added: “I abhor social networking sites, they cause so much trouble.”
Sarah’s foster family was aware of the issues raised, however, and monitoring her postings.
Thousands of mourners joined Facebook groups paying tribute.
Some suggested she was a victim of on-line bullying, and targeted due to jealousy over her looks.
One friend wrote: “Let the people responsible for the bullying be brought to justice.
“Let them be named and shamed. So they have time to reflect on their actions.
“They now have to live with their conscience…if they have a conscience.”
Another posted: “Breaks my heart to think of this beautiful young girl frightened and scared.”
* For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.
* If you’re under 18 and need confidential help call Childline on 0800 1111.

GP Failings Exposed As Maggots Found In Surgery

Checks on 1,000 practices across England exposed "serious failings that could potentially affect thousands of people".

Inspectors have uncovered a catalogue of failings at GP surgeries - including one with rooms so dirty it had maggots on the floor.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) health regulator carried out inspections at 1,000 practices across England, and found examples of "very poor care" that put patients at risk.
In nine practices it found "serious failings that could potentially affect thousands of people", and follow-up inspections had to be ordered in 90 practices to ensure improvements were made.
At Dale Surgery in Sneinton, in Nottinghamshire, inspectors found maggots and other insects, as well as dust and cobwebs.
The surgery immediately dealt with the problem, but inspectors said there was "no regular, effective and on-going monitoring of these standards".
Professor Steve Field, the CQC's new chief inspector of general practice, said: "We can talk about the fact we found maggots in a treatment room.
"And when we asked the question - and this is a good practice - the nurse said yes we do seem to have a bit of a problem. But they sorted it straight away."
Some GPs at other practices left private medical files lying around, had medicines that were out of date and filthy treatment rooms, and employed staff who had not undergone criminal record checks.
In some surgeries, emergency drugs were out of date and fridges were not always checked to ensure they were at the right temperature.
While many people received an excellent service, a third of surgeries (34%) failed to meet at least one of the required standards on good practice and protecting patients.
Prof Field has set out a new approach for the inspection and regulation of GPs and GP out-of-hours services.
His new-style inspections will start in April 2014 and will involve a CQC inspector, a GP, a practice nurse or practice manager and a trainee GP.
Inspectors will visit every clinical commissioning group region in England once every six months, inspecting a quarter of the practices in that area.
Every practice will have been inspected by April 2016 and given Ofsted-style ratings.
From January, new inspections will also focus on GP out-of-hours services.
"We need to make sure that everyone, from the most well-off to the most disadvantaged, can get access to really good primary medical care," he said.
"This is something which I intend to champion as chief inspector. When something goes wrong in general practice, it has the potential to affect thousands of local people."
Dr Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Specific areas for improvement have been found and the CQC must now work with these practices to ensure that they meet the necessary standards and that other practices can learn from their experiences."
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association's general practice committee, said the BMA was committed to improving standards.
"It's important, however, that anecdotes of poor practice are not used to distort the reality, which is that the overwhelming majority of hard-working GPs provide high-quality care which is appreciated by patients," he said.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Patients have a right to expect the best care from their GP practice."

 

New video released of Asiana plane crash

Asiana Crash Pilot Worried About Landing

A probe into the crash of a Boeing 777 highlights a lack of communication in the cockpit as new video shows the moment of impact.

The trainee pilot of the jet that crash-landed at San Francisco's airport last summer worried privately about his ability to land the Asiana Airlines flight safely, an investigation has found.

Lee Kang Kuk harboured fears about landing while relying on manual controls and a visual approach, but did not express them to his fellow crew members because he did not want to fail his training mission and embarrass himself.
The revelations were part of thousands of pages of investigative documents released during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing into the accident on July 6, which killed three people and injured more than 200.
The NTSB also released video showing the moment of impact, where the plane can be seen tumbling down the runway.
After the crash, Mr Lee told NTSB investigators that he had been concerned he might "fail his flight and would be embarrassed".
Although Mr Lee was an experienced pilot with the Korea-based airline, he was a trainee captain in the Boeing 777, with less than 45 hours on the jet.
He had not flown an airliner into San Francisco's notoriously tricky airport since 2004, according to NTSB investigator Bill English.
Mr Lee told investigators he had been "very concerned" about attempting a visual approach without instrument landing aids, which were turned off because of runway construction.
The NTSB is also examining an apparent lack of communication in the cockpit and signs of confusion among the pilots about the airliner's elaborate computer systems.
So far the investigation has not found any mechanical problems with the 777 prior to impact, although testing is ongoing, Mr English said.
That focused attention on Mr Lee, who did not speak at the hearing but whose actions - and failure to act - were a major part of the day-long meeting.
NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman stressed during a news conference that the agency had not yet concluded what caused the crash.
Documents released as part of the probe catalogued a series of problems that, taken together, could have been factors.
"This pilot should never have taken off," said lawyer Ilyas Akbari, whose firm represents 14 of the passengers.

"The fact that the pilot was stressed and nervous is a testament to the inadequate training he received, and those responsible for his training and for certifying his competency bear some of the culpability."
It has also emerged a teenage girl who survived the crash was run over by two rescue vehicles in the accident's chaotic aftermath.
Authorities in California revealed months ago that 16-year-old Chinese student Ye Meng Yuan was alive on the runway and covered in firefighting foam when she was hit by an emergency vehicle and suffered the multiple injuries that killed her.
But the NTSB documents reveal she was in fact struck twice - once by a fire rig spraying foam and again 11 minutes later by a second truck that was being turned around to fetch more water.
Two other teenage girls from China died in the crash.

Ed Miliband gets in on the selfie fun with… Joey Essex

Ed Miliband has attempted to steal the headlines away from David Cameron with a selfie of his own – with Joey Essex.

The odd couple took the picture together at  The Sun Military Awards last night.
The former TOWIE star uploaded the image to Twitter on Wednesday evening with the caption: ‘With my mate @Ed_Miliband.’

Joey is back on home soil after coming fourth in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, returning from the Australian jungle just hours before the awards ceremony.
His smart snap with the Labour leader comes two days after the prime minister’s controversial picture at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.
Mr Cameron, Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and US president Barack Obama were criticised for leaning in for a selfie during the ceremony.
The Sun Military Awards honours serving and ex-personnel and is supported by Prince Charles.